1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to methods of redemption and exchange of unused tickets, and in particular to methods of redemption and exchange of unused airline tickets. The present invention also relates to systems and apparatuses corresponding to such methods.
2. Related Art
The number of tickets being issued for services (such as airline and other forms of travel as well as hotel accommodations, concerts, seminars, shows, park admissions, events and the like) is rapidly increasing. In particular, the number of electronic tickets, and specifically electronic tickets for airline travel, is increasing very rapidly. Many travelers, and especially frequent business travelers, find themselves in the position of scheduling many trips, changing itineraries, canceling or rescheduling trips, and otherwise creating a complex history of travel scheduling and rescheduling. It is not unusual in the midst of such hectic travel history for a traveler to forget about or lose track of unused tickets. The problem of failure to timely use tickets and/or to redeem unused tickets is exacerbated by the growing use of electronic tickets, since, in the case of an electronic ticket, the traveler may have no paper record to remind him or her when to use the ticket or even that a ticket exists.
Generally, unused tickets expire after a prescribed period of time. If no refund is claimed after expiration, the residual value of the unused ticket is usually kept by the airline or other service provider, resulting in a total loss for the purchaser. A frequent traveler or a business that employs a number of employees who travel can sustain significant financial losses by allowing multiple paid-in-full, but unused tickets to expire rather than obtaining refunds for them.
At least some of this financial loss may be avoided by keeping track of unused tickets and seeking refunds therefor in a timely manner. For example, full or partial refunds may be available prior to a specific date, although they may be severely limited after such date. Even if the tickets are specified as not being refundable, it is often the case that they be redeemable for some form of value. In such cases, the financial loss may be avoided or mitigated by redemption of the unused tickets. This latter situation is becoming increasingly important because the use of non-refundable tickets is growing, due in large part to the significant cost savings associated therewith.
Unfortunately, to recapture value from an unused, non-refundable ticket usually requires a cumbersome alternative to a refund, such as an exchange, a credit, a discount, or some other mechanism for redeeming the ticket to capture its residual value. For example, it may be the case that an unused, non-refundable ticket is redeemable as credit toward the purchase of a new ticket. That is, the residual value of the unused, non-refundable ticket may be applied as full or partial payment for the new ticket. However, to effect such redemption of the unused, non-refundable ticket, it is necessary for the booking agency to collect information pertaining to both the unused, non-refundable ticket and the new ticket and to apply so-called validation rules that govern redemption/exchange of the unused, non-refundable ticket. The validation rules are based on characteristics of the tickets and typically limit the conditions under which the unused, non-refundable ticket can be redeemed/exchanged. For example, the validation rules may require that the unused, non-refundable ticket be exchanged only for travel during limited time periods, or to/from certain departure/arrival cities, etc. The validation rules also determine the amount of residual value of the unused ticket, i.e., the value for which it can be redeemed/exchanged. For example, in the case of a ticket having multiple segments (i.e., legs) of a journey, which ticket is partly unused (i.e., some, but not all legs have not been used), the validation rules may stipulate that the residual value of a ticket decreases by a given amount for each segment that has already been used.
Application of the validation rules is a time-consuming procedure. For example, it may take a travel agent 15 minutes to apply the rules to a given exchange requested by a holder of an unused, non-refundable ticket. Moreover, it is generally not feasible to estimate the residual value of an unused, non-refundable ticket, or even to determine whether it is exchangeable at all, by some other means that would permit one to bypass application of the rules. This is because the rules are not typically indicated on the paper ticket at all, or in other travel records in straightforward plain language. In addition, the rules are often complicated, and in some cases, debatable. Thus, it is necessary to perform the laborious and time-consuming procedure of applying the rules even though there is a significant chance of obtaining a negative outcome, e.g., of determining that the ticket may not be used as desired or has no significant value at all. For example, upon application of the rules, it could turn out that the ticket may not be exchanged for the requested new ticket, but could be exchanged for certain other new tickets, or that the ticket has insignificant residual value, or may not be exchanged for any new ticket. The ticket that the customer believes is unused may be partially used (i.e., open), which the travel agent may not be able to ascertain without going through the process of applying the validation rules.
Since travel agents are generally under pressure or requirements to limit the time allocated to a given customer or transaction, they may not have an incentive to apply the validation rules, in view of the time and difficulty involved therewith and the possibility that the time and labor expended could turn out to be wasted. Accordingly, it is often the case that no attempt is even made to redeem/exchange an unused ticket. Consequently, many unused tickets expire without their residual value having ever been sought or claimed. This practice causes significant financial loss to travelers and, in particular, to large organizations having many employees who travel.
In addition to the above-described problems of time and labor and consequent disincentive to attempt redemption of unused tickets, the difficulty of applying the validation rules results in errors being made by travel agents in processing exchanges of unused tickets for new tickets. For example, the travel agent could mistakenly charge a traveler too low a price for such an exchange. When such an error is discovered by the ticket issuer, the ticket issuer issues a debit memo to the travel agency. The travel agency has to pay the ticket issuer (1) the difference between the correct price and the price it collected from the customer and paid the ticket issuer and (2) a penalty for making the mistake. These costs to the travel agency constitute another disincentive to attempting to obtain the residual value from unused tickets.
In addition to facing the above-described problems involved in processing redemption/exchanges of unused tickets, large organizations (e.g., travel agencies) have had difficulty effectively recapturing the residual value of unused tickets due to the lack of both (1) a centralized database for keeping records of unused tickets, accessible by all the offices or branches of an agency, and (2) a single uniform procedure for processing and redeeming unused tickets, which is followed by the offices or branches of an agency. Thus, different local offices may each operate according to their own local procedures, with no attempt to ensure that the most efficient procedure is used by all. Also, offices may not even have the ability to retrieve the information about existing unused tickets issued by other offices of the same agency, which information would be necessary to use such tickets in exchange for a new ticket (e.g., if a traveler purchases a ticket at one office, does not use it, and wishes to redeem/exchange it for a new ticket at a different office of the agency).
In sum, conventionally, there has been no effective and efficient way to track unused tickets and to facilitate their redemption/exchange for credit applied to the purchase of new tickets on behalf of the traveler/purchaser. Any systems that have been available have been substantially manual systems that are not sufficiently reliable in terms of tracking unused tickets, identifying the status of such tickets (e.g., as unused or redeemed/exchanged), providing this information to the traveler/purchaser for the purpose of redemption/exchange, and efficiently processing redemptions/exchanges of unused tickets. In addition, existing systems have not been organized on an organizationally global scale.
Accordingly, the need exists for an improved (e.g., more organized and more automated) system for the redemption/exchange of unused tickets, including the various support mechanisms/infrastructure for such a system as described above, such as would overcome or mitigate the problems described above.